Tarzan is a party member in Kingdom Hearts. He is a wild, almost animal-like man who has been raised by gorillas since birth. He speaks little English and mostly gorilla language which is a combination of grunts and hoots. Because of his long time in Deep Jungle, he has developed rather impressive acrobatic skills similar to the movements to a monkey, and he even can "surf" down tree branches and vines, as well as using vines to swing across great distances. He fights with a spear made from a sharp rock tied to a branch.
History[]
Tarzan first encounters Sora in his former treehouse home, being attacked by the leopard Sabor. Tarzan managed to chase off Sabor and became friends with Sora, through a difficult conversation due to Tarzan's limited vocabulary. Sora asks for Tarzan's help to locate Riku and Kairi, although Tarzan doesn't really understand. He leads Sora through the jungle's depths to an encampment where Sora meets Tarzan's friend, Jane, who is surprised to see Sora, and later Donald and Goofy.
Clayton, a hunter whom Jane brought to the jungle, attempts yet again to persuade Tarzan to show them the location the gorillas. Tarzan, however, cannot do it as the leader of the gorillas, Kerchak, is distrustful of the humans. At this point, Clayton has his heart taken by the Heartless and he falls into darkness. Sabor attacks Sora and Tarzan again, but they kill him.
Jane and Terk are briefly kidnapped by Clayton, but are saved shortly after by the Keyblade bearer. Unfortunately, Clayton and his gang of Heartless have now captured all the gorillas so that Clayton can shoot them. Sora and Tarzan intervene and the gorillas escape. Clayton and a large Heartless named Stealth Sneak fight Sora, Tarzan, Donald and Goofy, but they are defeated (Clayton being crushed by the Heartless).
Tarzan seems to be able to tell that Clayton is no longer human, and expresses his discovery immediately before the fight. Grateful for their rescue, the gorillas show Sora and the others the location of the world's Keyhole. Jane then figures out what Tarzan's continuous grunting means: Friends in the heart (the word 'heart' is subtitled in punctuation symbols).
Characteristics[]
Tarzan is a friendly character, especially when he is among his "family", the gorillas. He cares deeply about his friends. It also seems Tarzan can feel it when people want to harm his friends, because he didn't trust Clayton when he said he didn't want to harm the gorillas. Tarzan is almost always the first to save people when they're in danger: He saved Sora from Sabor, and later, along with Sora, Donald and Goofy, he saved Terk and Jane.
Tarzan's brown hair is styled in long dreadlocks. He wears almost no clothes. The only piece of clothing he wears is a tattered, brown loincloth around his waist. His eyes are a light green-blue in color and his muscular body is tanned from living in the jungle all his life.
Gameplay[]
Ability | AP (FM) |
---|---|
Raging Boar | 2 |
Asp's Bite | 2 |
Healing Herb | 3 |
Wind Armor | 3 |
Critical Plus ×2 | 3 (2) |
Berserk | 1 |
Second Chance | 2 (5) |
Second Wind | 3 |
Tarzan is a powerful party member whom easily eclipses essentially everyone else in the party during your time in Deep Jungle. Although he has only average HP and MP, his Strength and Defense are notably higher than other party members. He is also the sole character at that time who possesses the Cure and Aero spells, through his abilities Healing Herb and Wind Armor. The latter also costs only 1 MP instead of the usual two for the Aero spell.
He has two special attacks; Raging Boar and Asp's Bite. The former is a medium range charge attack during which he wildly swings his spear around him, whereas the latter causes him to jump into the air and smash the spear downwards in an overhead attack. His normal attacks are either a forward thrust, a wide swing, or an upwards swing. Due to his Strength stat these all deal a lot of damage, but he suffers from low max MP, as it prevents him from using all of his abilities to the fullest. He can also have trouble hitting the rather agile and jumpy Powerwilds at times, even if he destroys them in only one or two hits. Due to this Raging Boar's and Asp's Bite power tends to not be as useful as the large areas give the Heartless plenty of room to outmaneuver him.
He otherwise has the Berserk, Critical Plus (twice), Second Chance and Second Wind abilities. Especially the latter two help his staying power alongside Healing Herb and Wind Armor, whereas Berserk and Critical Plus focus more on his damage output. He does not have enough AP for all his abilities (16 in the original, 19 in Final Mix) so a trade-off has to be made somewhere. Lastly he only has a single accessory slot, although this is off-set by his high base stats.
Origin[]
Tarzan's appearance in the Kingdom Hearts series is based on his appearance in the 1999 film, Tarzan.